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Climate Choices for a Sustainable Southwest 423Table 18.3 Examples of synergies and trade-offs between regionally relevant mitigation andadaptation activities and climate-change impacts (Continued)AdaptationsupportsMitigationAdaptationunderminesMitigationEfforts to increase rainwater infiltration on the land to improve watersecurity and reduce the risk of sewer overflows and flooding duringextreme rainfall events also reduces the need for energy-intensivesewage treatment and pumping.Coastal seagrass bed and wetland restoration increases carbon uptakeand increases coastal protection against storms [1].Desalinization of seawater to increase local water security duringdrought years is a highly energy-intensive adaptation options, thusincreasing CO 2emissions (unless the desalination plant is solarpowered).Increased pumping for groundwater and increased recharge ofdepleted groundwater aquifers is energy-intensive and thus, typically,increases CO 2emissions.Relocation of residents out of floodplains in ways that increase theoverall need for driving increases one-time relocation-and rebuildingrelatedemissions and possibly increases transportation-relatedemissions.Extensive fortification of coastlines against sea-level rise and coastalflooding with seawalls also increases CO 2emissions from cement.Borel 2009; Waterfall2006; PWA 2010;DeLaune and White2011DOE 2006; Stokes andHorvath 2006; Lofman,Petersen, and Bower2002Biesbroek, Swart, andvan der Knaap 2009Boden, Marland, andAndres 2011Note: [1] Additional benefits and cost savings may arise if sediment trapped in nearby bays or channels is used tohelp wetlands build up vertically; carbon storage benefit may be smaller if coastal storms cause severedamage to wetlands.For example, in a survey of over 600 federal public land managers in Colorado, Wyoming,and Utah (Dilling 2012), lack of funding and lack of information (including boththe uncertainty of information and its usefulness) were both ranked highly as barriers inmoving forward to plan or implement adaptation strategies for climate change. Lack ofspecific agency direction was also mentioned as a key barrier. Public perception, includingthe perceived lack of importance and lack of demand from the public to take actionon climate change may also act as hurdles in preparing for climate change. A perhapsunique challenge for public lands and other resources governed by federal law such asinterstate water compacts (i.e., the Colorado River Compact) is that they have a decisionprocess and legal framework that was developed under an assumption of climate stationarity—theconcept that patterns of past climate provide a reasonable expectation ofthose of the future—an assumption that is no longer valid (Milly et al. 2008; Ruhl 2008).The legal framework defining decision making on public lands is likely to be anotherbarrier to making adaptive decisions.